From fight to Fox: NASCAR rivals play nice as TV teammates
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer have no idea exactly how or when they repaired their once- fractured relationship. It was years ago and surely involved dinner and drinks.
Gordon, a four- time NASCAR champion, and Bowyer, the funniest guy in the garage, were ready to throw down following an intentional crash at Phoenix in 2012. They eventually made up, although it wasn’t a quick fix.
These days, all is forgiven. Forgotten? Not quite.
“Every time I see it, I put my head between my legs out of embarrassment,” Gordon said. “I feel like I had this amazing career and the one flaw was me losing my cool and it happened to come with a guy I enjoy hanging out with.”
“And now his co-worker!” Bowyer chimed in.
Nearly nine years after Gordon and Bowyer were involved in one of the most infamous on- track paybacks in NASCAR history — Gordon ignored a black flag and waited for Bowyer to circle the track before purposely crashing him with two laps remaining — the former rivals are now good friends and eager to share the Fox broadcast booth in 2021.
As they begin their debut week on the same team, they’re not shying away from their past. The network even featured it in a Daytona 500 preview commercial.
“We all have short fuses,” Bowyer said. “They wick up good and they blow out fast. That’s just the way it is. You’ve got another race. Something’s always next and you’ve got to brush those past instances off and be ready for the next one.”
Getting over that acrimony took time.
Gordon and Bowyer, vying for fifth place with seven laps to go, made contact shortly after a restart. Gordon brushed the outside wall and ended up with a flat tire. He made a quick pit stop, returned to the track, slowed down enough that officials flagged him and then ambushed Bowyer in the fourth turn.
“That was the real act of a champion,” Bowyer’s spotter said over the radio.
Gordon drove his mangled car to the garage. Bowyer had to stop near emergency workers because his car was on fire. Gordon climbed out of the cockpit, took off his helmet
and was swarmed by Bowyer’s crew.
Gordon’s guys came to his defense, and a melee broke out. Pushing, shoving, piling on, punches, though it was quickly broken up.
Bowyer got word of what was happening and exited his car, jumped the pit road wall and started sprinting. He dodged fans, crew members and even a police officer as he bolted through the garage and to Gordon’s team hauler. NASCAR officials waited and stopped him from getting any closer.
“Hell, I about pulled a hamstring then,” Bowyer recalled. “I don’t know what I would have done had I caught him. I would have had to take a break, sit down and be like, ‘Hey, man, give me a minute. I’m
about to whoop your ass as soon as I get a breath here.’”
Gordon narrowly avoided a suspension for the season finale. He was fined $100,000 and docked 25 points, which dropped him from fifth to 11th in the standings.
Days later, Gordon revealed he’d been angry with Bowyer since a race at Martinsville in April. The grudge between the two lasted months, maybe even years, and created awkward moments at championship awards events as well as a random New Year’s Eve party when they deliberately avoided each other on Diddy’s yacht.
“Just a couple of circumstances led to me just completely going red right there,” Gordon said. “I got to live with that. I’ve spent
a lot of time with Clint and his wife talking about how we get past this, how will they ever forgive me? ,... We luckily have some pretty thick skin and have a good sense of humor about life.”
That explains why Gordon and Bowyer welcomed Fox’s idea to shoot a commercial about their nearly decade-old dustup. The 30-second spot starts with Gordon stepping into an elevator, seeing Bowyer trying to join him and then frantically closing the doors to avoid riding together.
Gordon flashes an evil grin as Bowyer gets shut out, prompting Bowyer to respond, “never liked him.” As Gordon takes a slow ride to the third floor, Bowyer starts running and climbing the stairs. Bowyer gets to the elevator just as it opens. Gordon exits to see Bowyer hunched over and sucking air and says, “Hey, look at you. Still trying to catch me.”
“Buddy, I ain’t got time for this,” Bowyer responds. “You’re gonna make me late.”
Bowyer hung up the helmet at the end of last season after winning 10 Cup Series races over 15 years. Fox hired him to help call nine Xfinity Series races last year, essentially asking him to take his standup routine from NASCAR garages to living rooms across the country. The network turned to Bowyer again when it started broadcasting iRacing events to take the place of races postponed because of the pandemic.
His self-deprecating humor was a hit. Fox executives took notice and decided to return to a threeman broadcast team.
“A huge silver lining of 2020 was Clint and Jeff and Mike doing those iRacing events,” said Brad Zager, head of production and operations at Fox Sports. “I don’t know if we’re having this conversation if that doesn’t happen last spring. It was really those events where we started to think this could be the future of our Cup Series booth.”
Now, Gordon and Bowyer are back in the spotlight and sharing takes instead of trading paint. They never actually fought, but they’re not ruling it out on the air.
“If it happens, I’m going to have to stand on top of two or three apple boxes,” the much shorter Gordon joked.
SEATTLE (AP) — Russell Wilson is tired of getting hit. Tired of taking sacks.
His frustration is to the point that Wilson took time on Tuesday which was set aside to speak on winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year award to address some of the issues he sees with the Seattle Seahawks going into the offseason.
At the top of Wilson’s list seems to be concerns with how he’s been protected, and the fact through nine years he’s taken 394 sacks in the regular season.
“I’m frustrated with getting hit too much. I’m frustrated with that,” Wilson said. “At the end of the day you want to win ... I think that’s part of the process.”
Wilson’s comments came after days of conjecture that followed Seattle’s star quarterback being honored by the league with its top award for work done off the field. Wilson was presented the award last weekend at the Super Bowl in Tampa, becoming the second Seahawks player to be honored, joining Steve Largent.
But while his work off the field has been noteworthy, it was on the field concerns with the Seahawks that steered the conversation. Wilson noted his frustration with being at the Super Bowl and not playing. Seattle last reached the Super Bowl in February 2015 and hasn’t advanced past the divisional round of the playoffs since.
In 2020, the Seahawks won the NFC West but were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by the Los Angeles Rams.
“I love the process of winning. That’s why I put my cleats on every day. That’s why I get up early in the morning every morning, and that’s all I care about is
winning and finding a way to win and do whatever it takes,” Wilson said. “And that’s part of what you want your story to be about, and when I hang up my cleats is, you know, I have always said this and this hasn’t changed, I’ve always wanted to be one of the greatest winners of all time. So part of that process is I think everybody be on the same page and communicating and working together.”
Wilson’s primary concern seems to be his protection. The 394 times sacked in the regular season are the most for any
QB in his first nine seasons dating back to 1970, according to Pro Football Reference.
Seattle has made investment in the offensive line a priority at times during Wilson’s career, although results have been inconsistent. Last season, Seattle signed right tackle Brandon Shell and drafted rookie Damien Lewis, both of whom had solid first seasons with the Seahawks.
How much that’ll change under Seattle’s new offensive coordinator Shane
Waldron is one of the big questions for the offseason. Wilson was involved in the discussions that led to Waldron’s hiring, replacing Brian Schottenheimer after he was fired following three seasons with the Seahawks.
“You can tell he just kind of has that it factor. ... I think he’s gonna be a great offensive coordinator,” Wilson said. “He’s got everything that you would want in terms of his knowledge of the game and his experience.”
Wilson winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award included a $250,000 donation from the NFL to the Why Not You Foundation he started with his wife Ciara. In 2020, the couple donated one million meals to Feeding America and Food Lifeline, and contributed about $1.75 million to rebrand an existing charter school and launch the first Why Not You Academy set to open later this year.
Wilson also continued visiting with patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital, although they were virtual experiences due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wilson said the idea of philanthropy was instilled by his parents. He noted his mom, Tammy, a nurse, had quietly helped with COVID-19 testing in the past year at some Seattle area hospitals.
“As a young child you sit there and you notice your parents and what they do and how they love and how they guide and how they lead,” Wilson said. “I think that was something that really affected my heart, my soul when I was young. That’s something I always wanted to do.”